SEN Reform Education Health & Care Planning June 2014 Conference SEN Reform Worcestershire

The purpose of today: 1.Where we are today in terms of planning for implementation of the new legislation and Code of Practice for Sept To look at what is the same and what has changed? 3.To consider the new system for assessment 4.The effect on children who already have a Statement – the proposed SEN Conversion Plan 2SEN Reform Worcestershire

Where we are now: Draft SEN Code of Practice issued October 13 Substantial changes made in the House of Lords Revised Draft SEN Code of Practice – April 14 Final Code issued June 2014 – has now been laid before Parliament 3SEN Reform Worcestershire

The legislation – what is the same and what has changed? SameChanged Definition of SEN and SEN provision remains substantially the same. HOWEVER - definition of SEN provision now includes Health and Social Care provision which educates or trains a child or YP Duty to identify children and YP who have SEN is the same New legislation is now 0-25 and is outcomes focussed Duty to provide mainstream provision and the right of parents to insist on mainstream education is the same. Person centred approach Personal Budgets introduced Appeals – mediation certificates required The duty to specify provision remains the sameStatements and LDA’s replaced with EHC Plans Abolition of IEPS/ SA and SA+ The SENCO must be professionally qualified within 3 years of obtaining the post Local Offer 4SEN Reform Worcestershire

What is an EHC assessment /plan? 1.An EHC Plan will include all the child's assessed needs from Education, Health and Social Care in one place and may run from 0 up to 25 years of age. 2.Eligibility remains Education based. It is not a Health and Care Plan. The LA will only need to produce a Plan where it needs to determine SEN Provision. If there is no SEN provision required then there will be no plan, even if the child has Health/Care needs. 3.There is no simple means of redress and appeal on the whole plan. Only the educational aspect can be appealed to the SEN Tribunal, therefore parents who disagree with Social Care/Health aspects of the Plan will have to pursue either mediation or Health and Social Care complaints procedures. 5SEN Reform Worcestershire

The new system for assessment – when is an EHC Needs assessment appropriate? Majority of children and yp will have their needs met within local mainstream settings from within the resources normally available to them (see Ordinarily Available documentation and Local Offer) SEN CoP Para 9.1 School Funding Reform – notional SEN Budget of £6,000 A request for an EHC Needs Assessment should therefore only be made where a child is failing to make expected progress following the Assess/Plan/Do/Review cycles AND the special educational provision required to meet the child or young person's needs cannot reasonably be provided from within the resources normally available to their setting. (CoP Para ) Criteria for Integrated Assessment for Education, Health and Social Care Plan together with Guidelines for requesting the assessment. (see Edulink SEN Reform pages) 6SEN Reform Worcestershire

How can schools request an EHC Assessment? In applying the principles above: The child meets the needs criteria relevant to their area of special educational need You are able to demonstrate evidence of a graduated response to meeting need and are able to show evaluation of progress. You are able to evidence use of School based resources up to the maximum level of £6000 (plus AWPU), in accordance with the Worcestershire Ordinarily Available documentation In doing the above you are able to show that the LA needs to determine SEN provision for the child 7SEN Reform Worcestershire

Documentation that will be required: The Statutory Assessment process is now reduced to 20 weeks We therefore propose to follow the Solihull Pathfinder model by “frontloading requests” for assessment so we can make a decision straight away 8SEN Reform Worcestershire

Completing the request: A completed request for an EHC Assessment will include: Form RS36 – Request for Assessment A completed Family Conversation Record (to be completed by the Keyworker – usually the SENCO) A Completed medical questionnaire Completed views of the Child/Young person Copies of all professional reports available 9SEN Reform Worcestershire

How will the LA make decisions? Decisions will be made according to the Criteria for EHC Needs assessment documentation. We propose to hold a weekly meeting with Managers from Inclusion and Assessment, Caseworkers and reps from EPS/LST. The request will be presented to the Panel by the Statutory Process team and a decision will be made and communicated to the Family straight away. 10SEN Reform Worcestershire

What follows? Caseworker will take agreed cases from weekly meeting and decide what additional reports are needed The LA then has 6 weeks to obtain further evidence – this will have to include advice from an Educational Psychologist and will include health advice if child has medical needs. Format for advice from EPS now agreed to fit in with our draft EHC Plan Same draft format also given to LST and CCD teams Health report (if required) – format agreed to fit with EHC plan. Social care – CIN and LAC plans will be incorporated into the EHC Plan Draft Admin process – still TBC 11SEN Reform Worcestershire

The Process - what is the same and what has changed? StatementEHC Plan Request for Statutory Assessment – 6 weeks to decision Test – whether it is necessary Advices – 6 weeks After assessment – if no Statement – Note in Lieu sent to parents After assessment – if no EHC Plan parents sent a summary of evidence After assessment if Statement is proposed 8 week negotiation period with parent given 15 days for initial response LA drafts plan – must be issued within 16 weeks. After assessment if EHCP is proposed parent is given 15 days for comment then consultation with School (15 days) and finalisation. Total 26 weeksTotal 20 weeks 12SEN Reform Worcestershire

The EHC Plan A draft annotated EHC Plan has been put on the SEN Reform website The Plan must include the following sections: 13SEN Reform Worcestershire

Child and Family details Name and Address Parent/carer details Details of advice sought as part of the assessment 14SEN Reform Worcestershire

Section A – Child Profile: 1.Details of the child/Young Person and their family history 2.Child/YP’s aspirations. 3.Details of how the child/YP communicates 15SEN Reform Worcestershire

Section B The child or YP’s special educational needs – Note the category BESD changed to Social, Emotional & Mental Health difficulties. 16SEN Reform Worcestershire

Section C Details of the child or young person's health needs which are related to their special educational needs 17SEN Reform Worcestershire

Section D Details of the child or young person's social care needs which are related to their special educational needs 18SEN Reform Worcestershire

Sections E – H2 Outcomes We propose a table format which sets out : Outcome Sought for the child The support required to meet that outcome The frequency of the support Details of who will provide the support The resources needed Details of the responsible agency 19SEN Reform Worcestershire

Some more notes on outcomes EHC plans should be focused on education and training, health and care outcomes that will enable children and young people to progress in their learning and, as they get older, to be well prepared for adulthood. (CoP Para 9.64) When agreeing outcomes, it is important to consider both what is important to the child or young person – what they themselves want to be able to achieve – and what is important for them as judged by others with the child or young person’s best interests at heart Outcomes will usually set out what needs to be achieved by the end of a phase or stage of education in order to enable the child or young person to progress successfully to the next phase or stage. 20SEN Reform Worcestershire

Section I – placement The name and type of setting 21SEN Reform Worcestershire

Section J – Personal Budget A description of the costed support from each Service that could be taken as a personal budget– Education, Health, and Social Care Details of amounts payable by personal budget Confirmation of whether parents wish to take a personal budget 22SEN Reform Worcestershire

Conversion Arrangements Children and YP who already have Statements of SEN (or an LDA) will need to have them converted into an EHC Plan. Timescales for conversion – Sept 16 for LDA’s or April 18 for Statements. Options for conversion – End of Key Stage or Phase Transfer Statutory Assessments already underway in Sept 2014 will proceed through the old system and will result in a Statement or Note in Lieu. They will therefore be converted at a later point. 23SEN Reform Worcestershire

Conversion of Statements The legal test of when a child or young person requires an EHC plan remains the same as that for a statement under the Education Act Therefore, it is expected that all children and young people who have a statement, who would have continued to have one under the current system, will be transferred to an EHC plan – no child or young person should lose their statement and not have it replaced with an EHC plan simply because the system is changing. 24SEN Reform Worcestershire

Will ALL Statements and LDAs be Converted to EHC Plans? No, Worcestershire have numerous old statements that record provision of 20 hours and less Upto 20 hours now deemed to be within the ‘notional’ SEN budget provision i.e. ‘ordinarily available’ For these statements, there is no longer a need for the LA to determine SEN provision In these cases - cessation rather than conversion 25SEN Reform Worcestershire

Any Questions? Please write questions on your question sheets in your packs. We will then produce a FAQ and answers on the SEN Reform website. Alternatively, relevant questions can be raised in your workshop. 26SEN Reform Worcestershire

Useful Links NASEN SEND Gateway SEND PATHFINDERS SEN REFORM IN WORCESTERSHIRE NReformHome.aspxwww.edulink.networcs.net/senreform/Pages/SE NReformHome.aspx 27SEN Reform Worcestershire